At 3:40 a.m. on the morning of Sept 2, approximately 10 individuals, faces concealed by ski masks, stormed into Flower, a large club in Roppongi 5-chome. The group gained access via a private entrance (described elsewhere as an emergency exit) adjacent to the club's VIP lounge area, where a group of four to five customers, police investigators have learned, had booked the lounge in advance.

As reported in Tokyo Sports (Sept 4), the assailants made a beeline toward Ryosuke Fujimoto, the 31-year-old operator of a barbecue restaurant in Shibuya, who had been relaxing with friends for the previous two and a half hours. They bludgeoned Fujimoto with what appeared to be metal pipes, and after an assault that took no longer than two minutes, the men fled from the exit and down the steps into waiting vehicles.

A bloodied Fujimoto, a resident of Tokyo's Nakano Ward, was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital. He was pronounced dead shortly after 5 a.m. On Tuesday, the pathologist announced the cause to be brain injuries caused by blunt force trauma.

Club Flower is located approximately 250 meters from Roppongi subway station. On Saturday night, it hosted a music event, and was filled to near capacity with an estimated 300 customers.